TheDaak review

Body on the Barricades: Life, Art and Resistance in Contemporary India by Brahma Prakash, Leftword Books, 2023, 210 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 inches, ISBN 9789392018107, ₹325.00

by Zainab Wahab

Navigating Resistance in the Milieu of Authoritarianism and Bio-politics

Brahma Prakash’s Body on the Barricades presents a riveting analysis of the myriad manifestations of dissent and the barricades that stifle bodies resisting oppression in contemporary India. The book dismantles the ambiguity surrounding resistance by positing its fundamental significance for affirming the humanity and freedom of citizens in a democratic country. In his reflections on the recent instances of large-scale resistance and protests, Prakash identifies the systemic nature of oppression as a culmination of historical injustices legitimized by authorities who not only tolerated but actively encouraged the persistence of social inequalities. To understand the extent of the state’s power and the suppression of dissent, he examines the phenomenon within Indian politics that positions bodies in confrontation with barricades. For Prakash, this situation represents standing at the edge or the margins. When the body encounters the barricade, it is as likely to bring its domineering structure down by pushing against it as it is to suffocate under its unrelenting presence. As a liminal space of vulnerability and transgression, the barricades open avenues of possibilities, where freedom and life become as likely as their cessation. 

By situating the body on the barricade, Prakash unravels the biopolitical aspect of the state’s power that regulates the life and death of citizens. Borrowing the slogan ‘I can’t breathe’ from the Black Lives Matter Movement, the book sheds light on how severe curtailment of liberties can deprive people of not only their democratic rights but also the bare minimum necessities for dignified existence. Exploring the plight of migrant labourers during the Covid-19 crisis and the criminalization of protests in the last decade, the eight essays in the book comment on the rising inclination of the Indian state towards authoritarianism and the complicity of the media in legitimising it.

The essays frequently draw instances from the catastrophic consequences of institutional failure and Government mismanagement witnessed during Covid-19 crisis to expose the corrupt and exclusionary forces that thrive under the garb of democratic values. By assessing the close semblance between the social distancing guidelines imposed during pandemic and the pre-existing norms of caste-based separation, Prakash depicts how the pandemic acquired new meanings when it pervaded the social fabric of the nation, giving cogency to the discriminatory notions of contamination and pollution. As a result, the virus resurfaced practices similar to untouchability and ritual purity, leading to the ostracisation of marginalized communities. Additionally, the media acted as a mouthpiece to corrupt leaders and facilitated their sectarian agendas by changing the narratives and making oppressed communities appear virulent and violent.

With a thorough analysis of the form, Prakash identifies monologue as a feature of a hierarchical society that dissuades dialogue. When used by demagogues, the monologue appropriates spaces for meaningful and rational discussions. By extending their control to the agency of words, demagogues allow words to be misconstrued, decontextualized and imposed as erroneous labels on people demanding their rights or opposing state-sanctioned violence. The brilliance of Prakash’s engagement with the tactics of authoritarian regimes lies in how he uncovers the multiple capacities contained within them. While the barricade restricts the motion of bodies, it also makes their movement inevitable since one cannot remain stationary at a barricade. In the same vein, the confrontation of resisting bodies with the state’s instruments of violence creates spaces for both movement and pauses, igniting hope in the possibility of change. In her book Azadi, Arundhati Roy writes “hope lies in texts that can accommodate and keep alive our intricacy, our complexity, and our density against the onslaught of the terrifying, sweeping simplifications of fascism” (Roy 2020, p. 101) Resisting reductive and oversimplified definitions that perpetuate singular and biased narratives, Prakash’s book is such a text, inspiring hope by navigating the myriad possibilities that arise during situations of crisis and despair. 

In further chapters, Prakash has closely engaged with the Hindutva ideology and right-wing politics that mobilizes and unites the masses through hate. By drawing light to genocidal jokes and religious fundamentalism in schools, the book delineates the systemic nature of oppression and exclusionary politics. With the pandemic, the intolerance entrenched in the Hindutva ideology rose to the surface as its adherents blamed Muslims and lower caste communities for spreading the virus. Using Emile Durkheim’s distinction of the ‘sacred’ and ‘dangerous contagion’, Prakash portrays how the Brahmanical state perceived the minority communities as carriers of disease and subsequently, a threat to the purity of upper caste citizens (Durkheim 1995). While the pandemic contained the potential of becoming a great equalizer, in the Indian context it became an instrument to segregation and inequality.

The chapter on the plight of migrant workers during the pandemic is incredibly telling about the state’s indifference towards workers in the informal sector. The writer highlights that the Indian government has kept no data on migrant laborers. As a result, their deaths didn’t figure in the official death records. Perceived by the critics as a “man-made disaster with misplaced priorities”, the death of (literally) uncountable migrant labourers during the pandemic as they headed back home indicated their lack of trust in the cities and the authorities for sustaining them during a crisis (Jaffrelot 2021). As they walked back home, covering miles on foot and wobbly carts, their existence and numbers came to be recognized by the inhabitants of cities built from their labour. Their arduous journey back home provoked conversations on the rights of people suspended in movement, perennially traversing the distances between alienating cities and caste-practising villages.

In the foreword to American Protest Literature, John Stauffer defines protest literature as “the uses of language to transform the self and change society” (Trodd 2008, p. xiii). Art becomes inevitable during periods of crisis because as progenitors of ideas, the artists play a crucial role in combating hopelessness and opening new possibilities. Remembering poets like Kabir, Bojja Tharakam and Varavara Rao, Body on the Barricades depicts the indispensable role played by art in paving the path of liberation for the oppressed. The disruptive influence of art challenges the status quo by questioning the accepted norms of society and exposing their inherent violence. Prakash is right in positing that the artist’s conflict with the state isn’t rooted in politics but in principles (p.130). The artists do not care to conform as they do not tether their works to normative conceptions of morality or truth. Rather, they align their work with the principles of freedom, humanity and love. When the state imprisons poets and artists, it curtails the right of an individual to think freely and stifles critique. The antagonism between the state and the artists emerges when the former tries to annihilate the freedom and imagination of the latter, disguising its intolerance by imposing seditious and anti-national labels on the artists. Prakash’s book is a testimony to the perseverance of art. It reminds the reader of what Bertolt Brecht wrote about singing in the dark times. It will be about the dark times.

Focusing on the anti-CAA resistance and farmer’s protests, the book exposes the nuances of protests, their unpredictability and strategic misrepresentation by the media. Regardless of the political consequences, Prakash sees a protest as a victory for democracy.  As a proof of the successful exercise of the right to dissent, protests strengthen democracy by giving people space to convey their problems and negotiate their demands with the government. The protest represents a multitude of possibilities that can determine the future of the state and the people. While the suppression of protests through increased surveillance, military action and police brutality is no longer an uncommon phenomenon, it is jarring how violence towards protesters has increasingly been accepted as a peace-keeping measure. The state’s monopoly over violence is repeatedly justified while the passivity of non-violence is expected from the protesters. By perpetuating misconceptions and changing narratives, the media becomes complicit in misrepresenting the objectives of the protest and encouraging suspicion towards dissent. While artists decorate protest sites with thought provoking and enlightening posters, sculptures and graffiti, the media reportage obstinately pursues the narrative of protest sites causing inconvenience to non-participating citizens and disrupting everyday events. In this way, the media invalidates the restorative and reformative objectives of protests by persistently portraying them as a nuisance to society, hence redefining them as acts of selfish interest aimed at depriving others of convenience and privileged spaces of comfort.

Reflecting on the relevance of strikes, Prakash asserts that it was the workers’ strike in the 19th century that enabled the proletariat to claim ownership of their time. However, in the contemporary world, as factories and corporations overtly prohibit strikes and oppose unions, workers’ resistance has become an impossibility. The prohibition of strikes limits the possibility of the workers’ to collectivize and resist exploitation. While Ambedkar saw a strike as “a breach of contract of service”, he proclaimed that to criminalize strike would mean compelling “a man to serve against his will” (Ambedkar 2020, p.87). In the absence of workers’ collectives and the possibility of strikes, the workers’ role becomes susceptible to being reduced to slavery. Prakash reflects that by resisting exploitation through strikes and refusing to work, the workers gain a sense of their collective capacity and the indispensable significance of their labour. 

By invoking several philosophical perspectives, Prakash analyzes how people struggle for their rights and resist oppression during politically tumultuous times. As the state tries to further its control over the life and death of citizens, it consistently reduces their existence to what Giorgio Agamben calls ‘bare life’ (Agamben 1998, p. 9-14). By imposing bans on strikes, forbidding mourning and criminalizing protests, the state attempts to disintegrate solidarities and express contempt for any assembly that doesn’t blindly submit to its views. An intriguing blend of poetry, philosophy and the author’s personal experience, Body on the Barricades is an eye-opening read about the significance of resistance and art in the politically tense climate of the present day.

References:

Agamben, Giorgio. (1998). Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford University Press. 

Ambedkar, B. R. (2020). Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches. Dr. Ambedkar Foundation. Vol. 2, 87.

Jaffrelot, Christophe. (27 April 2021). ‘India’s Second Wave: A Man-Made Disaster?’ Institut Montaigne

Durkheim, Emile. (1995). The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. New York: Free. 

Prakash, Brahma. (2023). Body on the Barricades. Leftword Books

Roy, Arundhati. (2020). Azadi. Penguin Hamish Hamilton

Trodd, Zoe, et al. (2008). American Protest Literature, The John Harvard Library